Oh right, before I forget.

https://i.imgur.com/5UfzDNp.png

Sogo is an asshole.

Shoot! I'm behind...

Episode 15, great episode, loved the night fight with Jin, and Shining Assault Hopper looks cool. I love how it incorporates Assault Wolf's design into it, I don't know why, I like it, but I do.

And that, is why I love this first part of Zero-One. But the rest, I'll get to whence we do.

Reiwa Generations: It's a fun movie. I liked seeing the Zi-O cast again (though this may be me misremembering, but I find the lack of "Iwae!" disturbing), but the Zero-One portions knock it out of the park for me. From Ichigata (one of my favorite designs), to 001 (also very nice), and the whole plot surrounding it was just so good.

Also, I strangely enjoy how Another Ichigo is a Motorcycle-Centaur, it's bizarre, absurd, and just downright neat, Another Zero-One, not as much, but it's cool we got to see an Another Rider version of him. And Finis, showing us once again, that people in the future have some interesting fashion, it's also not often I see people with trains anymore.

(I don't care who people think would beat who between Zi-O and Zero-One, I like both.)

I'm going to be the stick in the mud and say, this boy's spitting facts. Sorry.

I'm more disappointed Aruto never made a time joke of some sort with Zi-O.

I just wish that one of these Timejackers who hates Heisei could be more explicitly WHY DON'T THEY RIDE BIKES ANYMORE for their villainy. I appreciate this one's commitment to being a giant CGI motorcycleman, but I really wanted to hear someone complain about Zi-O never riding a bike.

A fact of real life, sure.

A fact of the universe they live in though, not even remotely. The past being changed is kinda what kicks off the entire movie.

That's fair. Also, it's been a while since I last saw this movie, so, I guess that means I'm the thing you just called Sougo. :lol

KAMEN RIDER ZERO-ONE EPISODE 16 - “THIS IS THE DAWN OF ZAIA”

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/...zeroone16a.png

Very weird episode of Zero-One? It’s a transitional one, leading us out of the initial MetsubouJinrai arc, and into the Thouser/ZAIA arc. But there’s an air of ambivalence to everything that’s reasonable for our heroes – everyone’s real Is That It for half of the episode – while not creating much interest for this viewer.

It’s like… it’s like there’s a middle section of this episode that would more directly ratchet up the tension, but we didn’t get it. Instead, we got our heroes exhaling after their recent success, while everything around them says WHY DO YOU THINK YOU’VE WON. It seems like the show wants to play it as a vague sense of unease, since multiple characters call it out, but it makes the middle section just feel like plate-spinning until Gai shows up to drop the hammer.

He’s an interesting character, Gai. I don’t feel like he’s more fully-developed than when he was last trying to give Hiden Intelligence a black eye, but there’s some fun new details. Him being the inverse of Aruto is clever. Gai manipulated a race of robots to become a powerful, rich industrialist, while Aruto became a powerful, rich industrialist to protect a race of robots. I don’t know if his scheme to takeover Hiden via a satellite trained to despise humanity and a robot death cult is particularly exciting to think about (it feels a little bland right now), but I appreciate his casual Oh I Taught A Robot To Hate People thing. That’s a fun energy for a villain speech.

The stuff preceding it was entertaining but perfunctory. Neat to see Shining Assault Hopper go all out with dazzling new weaponry, but, like, Jin isn’t exactly Final Boss material. There’s pathos to his inability to even attempt to explain why humanity should go extinct, exposing both the hollowness of MetsubouJinrai’s philosophy and the failure of humanity to teach Humagears how to live, but Horobi was the bigger villain to defeat. Taking out Jin’s just mopping up. It’s a well shot fight, but nothing with any real drama behind it.

This whole episode was just, I don’t know, incredibly weird in its transition from one story to another. There’s this middle section where everyone is waiting for the other shoe to drop, and then it does. There isn’t much more to the second half than an inevitability, which is… it’s not a great way to generate or dispel tension? Weird. I didn’t much like the feeling, despite finding the episode relatively pleasant.

—

KAMEN RIDER ZERO-ONE SO-DO AI 07: KAMEN RIDER ICHI-GATA - ROCKING HOPPER

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/...zeroone16b.jpg

CYCLONE RISE! *click* DAD! *chunk* ROCKING HOPPER! *battle music* "You can never be a man until you murder your father."

(Pretty sure that's the complete Rocking Hopper Henshin sequence, from memory.)

I really like the Ichi-Gata suit. It’s a fun Reiwa take on Showa, creating something in the context of Zero-One’s aesthetics that still looks like it could be 50 years old. It’s got the vague Forceriser design (strapped-together armor over a bodysuit), but moved around and evened out, thanks to the Cycloneriser. It’s more symmetrical, with an actual design sense behind it, rather than Stolen and Hotwired. The little scarf/muffler is adorable, I like the sad Showa eyes it’s got. Very clever take on something that needs to feel from a different era.

I don’t love the SO-DO, though. A ton of it is how Bandai opted to do the tiny antenna: as giant fins. It completely ruins the profile of Ichi-Gata, and that’s a shame. The rest of the figure is fairly solid, with good sticker use filling out the color on Dad Form. There’re a couple stickers on the torso that are a pain (the silver/black ones that have to lodge in between the turquoise plates), but it’s all within reach. I didn’t have a bad time making him.

So, yeah, wish the helmet had been molded differently. Otherwise, it’s an okay figure for a really good suit.

"Nobody told me about this!" - Jin realizing he's a villain in Kamen Rider who never get informed ahead of time when they're about to get beat up by the new upgrade form.

Shining Assault Hopper! Honestly I just think the funnels are really cool. Like, I'm a big Gundam guy so just seeing a Rider use funnels to fight is cool for me.

I feel like Aruto vs Jin works just as fine because technically Aruto's been dealing with Jin from the start so they've got that going for them and Jin's innocence and nascent obsession with fulfilling his fathers' wish makes for a nice contrast with Aruto's resolve to stop them even if on some level you wish these two could connect and do more than fight each other. Like Aruto is his family's legacy while Jin is the legacy of Metsuoboujinrai and their philosophy, so that's why I think the fight works. And Jin's last moments are pretty powerful to me.

And also just the overall direction and impact of the fight is great. Still showing off how awesome and powerful Zero-One is now but Jin still fights as hard as he can. And it ends really the most powerful way a duel between Riders can end...with them Rider Kicking each other.

The Metsuboujinrai arc has concluded and now it's time for Gai/Zaia to take the stage, and he's a much more smooth and open operator, especially since he was technically behind everything and using it for his own schemes. Really getting our new antagonist out there and establishing why he's going to cause more problems. And there's still the active Magia too...

It's the end of the first arc, so why not talk about this two-parter together? It's Episodes 15 and 16!

-So much happens in those first 10 minutes of 15. Geniunely thought it would've immediately cut to the preview after Aruto held Izu in his arms.

-Kinda wish the wrap up with Subaru from 14 didn't have to share time with this 2-parter? It feels a bit rushed to me, but I know trying to squeeze him in any more than he already is in this would be a worse outcome.

-Jin gets a lot of fun moments in this story. As much as a self-awakening can be born with loving guidance and care, it can be born of loneliness and despair....Jin not even *knowing* the reason why humans necesarily need to die, just running off the pure heartache of losing Horobi as a justification in addition to the skewed teachings he's been given all his life, it's such a shame. It's a real "we could've been friends if not for the circumstances", thing, yknow.

-Uh oh! Looks like Gai's making moves! The whole "I manafactured this whole conflict to assert my dominance in the market by advertising these weapons(Kamen Riders)/get rid of my compeitiors", it's such a thing a swarmy billionaire like him would do? I know she didn't know every single little detail of Gai's plan, but did Yua think Gai's scheming would just stop at taking over Hiden, or that he cares about how hard the members AIMS worked to fix this mess? Like, surely the guy suspiciously more a bit concerned about Hiden's downfall than anything might have ulterior motives!

-Got suuuuuuuuper conflicted feelings on the Shine System. It's a cool concept, dont get me wrong, but uh, I don't think it really fits 01's supper snappy and quick fighting style? I think it'd be fun to bulid a original Rider off that kind of defense system as its main means of combat tho!

- I dunno when I'll be able to talk about this, but Zea being somewhat of its own character depsite it being a satellite, it's always been interesting to me? Like, you can just see it as a giant plot device floating in space if you want to, but I think viewing Zea like you would any other Humagear makes things more interesting. (Interesting that Yua was concerned about how Aruto, but not Fuwa, could use the upgrade grip.)

Next time! Everyone's favorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrite arc begins!

Alright... time to see what we're in store for with these next set of episodes. And by what we're in store for I mean what Die's going to think of this current arc.

Since well I didn't think about it at the time because I really loved Aruto's speech to Jin about "Maybe if you weren't so steeped in hate things would be different". But yeah there's not much in the way of tension and it's a weird transitional episode that doesn't really evoke much. I feel like that sets up perfectly how this upcoming Arc went for me.

I think it works fine as an individual fight - I like Jin a lot! - but it doesn't really feel like the decisive, final blow against MetsubouJinrai. I mean, it shouldn't, because it isn't, but it just feels like the lieutenant got killed off after the boss.

Yeah, I... man, I really need this show to spell out more how Yua fits into this ZAIA story. I need to know why she's facilitating a scheme in one episode and then getting apoplectic about its consequences in a later episode. I basically need to know if she's naive or an idiot.

what if the new villain showed up and was like "i'm just going to keep doing the exact same plan as the last guys"

what if that

definitely not a thing that made parts of build drag for me

Well since you requested it, here’s Ichigata’s jingle.

Progrise: The Sole Hero of J-J-J-Justice! Rocking Hopper! Kamen Rider will fight to protect humanity. Type-1!

https://youtube.com/watch?v=DDMDhlH8clA

And despite everyone pointing out the Ichigou homage of the design, that’s literally a skin deep thing. His personality and the suffixes for his finishers (Spark and The End) are homages to Kikaider.

Onto this episode, all I can say is that the last scene got rewritten because Ohmori-P decided at the last minute that the show’s appeal was Aruto being president. Originally, it would’ve ended with Gai buying out the company and Aruto deciding to quit his job and walk off, with the VP taking one last moment to rub it in.

So, uh, how would you rank this compared to Super Movie War Genesis?

Aging is a biological thing (except for a certain eternally 24 year-old), so to simulate the effect of aging in HumaGears, they would need to be manually transferred to an adult body. Yeah, the point of kid-type HumaGears is probably just part of their culture to simulate a real human family.

I mean, did Aruto need a mother? He turned out pretty okay with only his father raising him, which isn't that uncommon with modern families. In Kamen Rider, it's lucky to have even one parent.

Same here. It's implied at the end that Aruto remembered that timeline, so Sougo apparently failed to erase his memories. I feel like Sougo winning would've just been too much of a downer on the Reiwa Era that had barely started at that point.

This is probably a good time to mention Inoue's statement for Zi-O VS Decade, that Basketball Sougo is native to the Reiwa Generations timeline. If those two Sougos are the same person, then Aruto must've seriously beat him up!

One of Gai's traits is that he sees himself as innocent and perfect. He doesn't realize when something is his fault, instead blaming others. For example: Ark turning against humanity? Gai merely educated it about the evil side of humanity. Ark destroying a city and killing people? Gai didn't tell it to do that. He sees all these actions as inevitable due to the nature of humanity and AI, while ignoring the fact that they wouldn't have happened without his deliberately destructive input.

You probably guessed this already, but my favorite scene in this episode was immediately after that climactic fight, where Aruto calmly picked up Flying Falcon from the ground. The lazer bird has returned to the nest! :D

I wish they had given Noriko Hidaka more dialogue.
That's fair. At the same time it feels kind of...I dunno about shady, but unless his mom was never around to begin with it seems kind of unfair to make a robot of just his dad instead of his mom. Because moms' are really important.

Maybe having two HumaGear parents who aren't in a relationship would have caused some kind of learning conflict about how best to raise Aruto?

Yeah, now it's revealed, the true source of why there are terrorist attacks in MetsubouJinrai.net and Humagears turned into something more unsafe. It's the worst form of how Aruto and HIDEN Intelligence had to face a competitor that tried to bring them down, in Gai and his ZAIA Enterprise. All about the dangers Humagears pose can be traced back into Gai feeding human negativity to Ark, making it genocidal and taking some Humagears as its underlings too like Horobi and Jin. Gai is the very target Fuwa should direct his anger at. This is done to discredit HIDEN and Humagears, but of course this is more than just taking down company, but also causing genocidal deaths, displaying how hatable Gai is to done so much more than just being company rival. As a company president, of course Gai had to keep his public image good as well, which unfortunately he had all the means to do to just deflect blames from anything he does to another party like claiming it's Ark's decision to become genocidal.

Jin isn't Final Boss material... because he's not, never, a Final Boss. As you've seen in this episode too, Horobi is beaten, but he's tied into a seat and re-awakens at the end, so it's not the end for MetsubouJinrai.net, only their central antagonist role. Not all dads are dead. Other than that though, you previously talked about the bad consequence of Fuwa's revenge, and now Fuwa actually felt it (other than how, Gai, the real source of his misery, has appeared), he questioned whether his whole quest for revenge was worth it, especially after seeing the defeated Horobi as nothing more than a hunk of metal. I forgot that here Aruto had a bit more sympathy to Jin that I remember, regarding how much he hated Jin before (for plausible reasons), regarding him knowing about how Humagears learned good or evil. Jin is a product of abusive upbringing from Horobi, thus bad teaching leads into a psycho.

So you'd like the suit, despite on how Soreo was handled in Reiwa First Generation (which'd be good to look at the suit objectively, moreover the Showa take). Other Showa trait is that, his name "Ichi-Gata" (Type-1) contrasts with Hongo's "#1" (ichi-gou), his suit has teal armor on a black bodysuit and his helmet has pink eyes, imitating the color scheme of Rider #1's original appearance (officially dubbed "Old #1") as well as "Hopper #1" from Kamen Rider The First. Ichi-Gata has an extended collar with red accents, referencing Rider #1's iconic red scarf, and the energy effects give the appearance of a full red scarf of his own. His transformation belt is the CycloneRiser, a silver and red repaint of the MetsubouJinrai Force Riser; this serves as a combined reference to Rider #1's own belt (named Typhoon, painted silver and red) and his motorcycle (named Cyclone). His pre-transformation pose is reminiscent to Hongo's iconic arm cross.

I don't remember if this was already pointed out to you, but did you know that the Robot Sougo from Decade vs Zi-O is from this movie's timeline?

https://i.imgur.com/opL1vdE.png

Episode 16(and I guess, by extension, 15) is also a contender for my favorite episode of the season.

Everything about them just comes together so perfectly for me. Especially in regards to one of Zero-One's' biggest themes: That being how the previous generation can often instill hatred and negativity bias into the current one.

Jin being the final boss of the first act is superb. His singularity being reached under a specific circumstance due to the machinations of the Ark is a great angle at turning Jin into a sort of dark mirror to Aruto. Like, the Ark and Horobi literally set Jin up to get the classic hero motivation/power-up of losing a loved one, only it's being done for one of the villains. Both in-universe and meta-wise, I found that to be absolutely brilliant.

But true to form, it's not the blind hatred and despair of Jin that wins the day, but the symbol of peace and unity in Aruto. Shining Assault Hopper serving as both the literal and symbolic union of not just Humans and Humagears, but of Aruto and Fuwa is just icing on the cake.

Absolutely wonderful two-parter that serves as both an end to the first Act and the beginning of the second. Love it.

And yes, I am 1000% prepared to be the Only Second Act of Zero-One Fan. Just as I was the Only First Act of Zi-O Fan.

The only way that original ending would've worked is if it happens at the shareholders' meeting in the middle of the episode. Aruto only became president of Hiden to protect humanity and Humagears as Zero-One, and he thinks that necessity is gone now. Humagears are safe, and humanity doesn't have any reason to fear them. Total victory, and I can see him being okay losing the company after that.

Any other scene where he'd just quit? INSANE.

I never remember which of these movies is which, so I had to go look it up. Yeah, I don't remember liking that Ghost/Drive movie too much, but I think I like this one less? That movie was stupid, but this one felt like it fundamentally didn't understand the point of Zero-One, and didn't much care about the purpose of Zi-O. Bigger sins in Reiwa First Gen, to me.

Ha ha, I for sure thought Sh Ranger Must Be Happy when Aruto picks up that Progrise Key. I'm glad that story got some closure for you!

I think it's also that the kind of vengeance Fuwa wants... it can't ever be obtained? He's dedicated his life to anger and violence, practically training himself to live off of only those two emotions. But then he thinks he's going to Get Revenge someday, and then he'll feel some catharsis, if not outright happiness. That can't ever work, though. The lifetime of Only Anger has left him without the capacity for relief, or happiness, or fulfillment. The end of this road for Fuwa can only be Death or More Anger, unless Fuwa starts doing some hard work on his value system.

Makes sense! The headphones that Sougo wore in the Decade vs Zi-O special were a dead giveaway. It's that sort of attention to detail and insistence on making sure all relevant story information is included in the product instead of randomly on a website or tweet that makes me appreciate non-series Kamen Rider storytelling so much!

It's a great episode for Aruto (I love the mid-episode scene with him and Izu so much), and I like how bummed out he is when he has to finish off Jin. He never really got to know Jin, and now Aruto's realizing that he's going to have to execute some messed-up kid who's mad about his dad being dead, a kid who genuinely doesn't understand what it means to be in a robot death cult. It's a heroic victory that makes the hero feel like kind of an asshole, which is one of my favorite types.

I got here first!!

... but I probably won't be here much and I'm not a fan of the third act as well as the second, so, eh; I'll let you have this one

No problem, we can share.

I will just be the Only Last Leg of Zero-One Fan.

KAMEN RIDER ZERO-ONE: IS’S LECTURE ROOM EPISODE 1

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/...e/lecture1.png

I did not know ahead of time that this was not set in the world of Zero-One! Sorry! But, hey, I spent time watching it, so let’s at least try and get a night’s post out of it.

It’s very charming. I’m a huge sucker for these sort of The Actors Film Some Bonus Content On Lunch Breaks extras, like the Fourze Net-Movies and such. It’s everyone in costume, but they’re clearly just goofing around because it’s for a Blu-ray bonus feature or a Toei Fan Club upload. The framework of this one is Izu giving Aruto a lecture so he can be a better president, but the reality is Izu’s actor trying to help Aruto’s actor through a quiz that he is utterly hopeless at. It’s not really Zero-One content, despite the trappings.

And yet, it’s 1000% Zero-One content? Watching these two kids team up to succeed – or, more accurately, watching the girl who plays Izu bend over backwards to help the idiot boy who plays Aruto – is as hilariously heartwarming as any Aruto/Izu story. They seem to have, sadly for maybe both of them, a very similar dynamic in real life as they do on the show. This Aruto kid seems to be about zero percent faking in his inability to read the context clues of a quote to determine the missing words, and Izu has to try and construct a hint that’s simple enough for him to finally win without being full-on cheating. If they piped in some Digital Noises over her movements and poses, I honestly would think I was watching a weirdly low-budget episode of Zero-One.

This maybe wasn’t technically a Zero-One episode (again: sorry, didn’t know), but it hit most of the buttons I want Zero-One to hit. The Aruto/Izu relationship is so central to the series that it makes me both incredibly happy and slightly concerned that it seems to have rubbed off on the actors. This was a lot of fun!

Am I mistaken or wasn't Aruto's actor (Fumiya Takahashi) one of the youngest Main Rider actors?

He was. He was 18 at the time filming started.

I literally pointed it out a few posts above yours on the same page. Although, not specifically to Die, but I presumed he would've seen it anyway since this is his thread.

Yeah, "worse than Super MW Genesis" is probably one of the strongest criticisms you could give this movie. Maybe it's actually worse that this time travel adventure fits in the canon of Zero One, instead of being an irrelevant alternate timeline as it was for Ghost.

KAMEN RIDER ZERO-ONE EPISODE 17 - “I’M THE TRUE PRESIDENT KAMEN RIDER”

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/...zeroone17a.png

Not a ton of time, but let’s see what there is to say about this episode.

It’s a great premise, the whole Job Battle thing. It allows for a neat little Humagear/humanity story, while being in service to the larger ZAIA plot. And the stakes… I mean, it’s just to let Gai feel like a smug prick, which is sort of amazing? There’s the larger threat of ZAIA taking over Hiden, or whatever is going on with Ark, but this story is fundamentally about feeding Gai’s ego, front to back.

On that level, it’s great? Gai’s thing is that he absolutely cannot conceive of any way in which he’s less than Aruto, which makes Aruto’s digs (like noting that ZAIASPEC sales haven’t gone up 1000 percent, only 700-something) such a delight. Gai takes himself a thousand percent seriously, so he’s a natural foil to a stand-up comedian. Beyond the corporate trappings and the weird backstory with Grandad Hiden and whatever, there’s a natural friction between these two people that works so well in every scene. I could watch Gai smirk and Aruto snark pretty much all day.

The actual meat of the story was nicely low-key, trading in a gentleness that I love to see. The central conflict is a fun one, where Gai is pushing human augmentation, while Aruto stumps for Humagears. It’s an interesting idea, because ZAIA’s feels like the more humane approach: it’s about centering human achievement, rather than dumping humanity’s hard work off to robots. But it actually comes off colder here than the use of Humagears, because it’s all about rigid math. ZAIASPEC is a multiplier, and nothing more. The Humagears, however, are about collaborating to create something unexpected, and the wonder of that partnership. ZAIASPEC is science, but Humagears are art. Putting those two things in opposition makes for a fun story.

And then there’s Thouser! Gai finally gets his Kamen Rider debut, and it’s as gaudy and ostentatious as you might’ve expected, but turned up to 1000. His driver uses two Zetsumerise Keys. The costume is gold and silver. Every belt jingle has a little “ZAIA Enterprises” tag, which is *chef’s kiss*. His whole debut is just no-selling Zero-One’s offense, which is disappointingly pedestrian (every single Q2 Rider gets the same type of debut!), but the weird psychodrama of his take on Kamen Rider more than makes up for the standard elements. He’s nothing special, so he needs to be shouting how special he is all the time. It’s great.

I liked this episode quite a bit. Not everything landed, mind you (Yua! Give Yua something better to do!), but the bones of this story were remarkably sturdy. Good stuff!

—

KAMEN RIDER ZERO-ONE SO-DO AI 05: KAMEN RIDER THOUSER

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/...zeroone17b.jpg

Good suit, too!

The gold and silver, as noted previously, are perfectly flamboyant. The multiple horns coming in to form a crown for the helmet, also ridiculously on the nose. Some tiny bits of purple to add even more regal highlights. And we can’t forget his signature weapon, the hysterically named Thousand Jacker, which gives him superior Jacking ability, enough to even Jack a thousand times. (He’s very excited to let people know about his Jacking!) It’s the suit of someone who needs you to know how special he is, at all times, forever.

The figure is also fairly premium? Very few stickers to this guy, which is absurd. Nearly all of one particular color could’ve been stickers (all the silver or gray, for instance), but it’s not. A few accent pieces for the legs and forearms, but that’s it. Painted pretty much from head to toe, which is practically unheard of for a non-P-Bandai release. But Thouser’s gotta look a thousand percent better than the rest of the wave, so I guess we know where the paint budget went for AI 05.

Great little figure, honestly. I’m amazed at how much Bandai put into it on the paint side, and the end result is appropriately swanky. Happy with how this Gai turned out!

Speaking of bones of the story, I hope you enjoy the bare bones mechanics of how this story and the next half of the story works. I really hope you do. *ominous/joyous music depending, check back in several episodes*

Thouser's cool though, kinda wish he had Blue Eyes though.

Also I'm saying it now, the ZAIA Spec is the absolute worst P-Bandai item I've ever seen, even worse than Banjou's dirty shirt.

First thread of yours I've caught, I myself don't really like Thouser's suit, but maybe that's just because I'm not a big fan of gold or silver, so it being a combination of both kinda puts it down a bit for me. The episode itself was quite good, and I really liked Aruto getting on Gai's nerves, before that brutal beatdown by Thouser.

Okay, the most I can say about the actual episode is that the reason the first competition is flower arranging is because the producer’s mother is a florist and knows a few others.
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...A1AA05C26.jpeg
Now then, Gai proved to have such an over the top ego that someone on Facebook decided to create a role play account for him (while other people did RP accounts for Aruto and Horobi, neither of them were as funny) and started posting edited memes from the show around this time.

And, I can get back to doing this, after a short absence.

Progrise: When the Five Horns Cross, the Golden Soldier Thouser is Born! Presented by ZAIA!

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...647ABBF01.jpeg

And this is another of the few keys I own, thanks to the Memorial AIMS and ZAIA set.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=oMGy76jVI7A

At this point, perhaps the stakes is still low for Gai being a smug prick, but still a reminder that Gai is the one who caused Ark to turn this way, he's responsible of all the Magias and MetsubouJinrai.net itself. The stake here is trickier than you think y'know, I think one of the hardest villains to fight is those who have good publicity, the people on their side. It means he had more free reign to do whatever he wants, of which what can he pull after he wins the battle between Humagears and ZAIA Specs, which was only a stepping stone towards his goal (yeah still is for the ZAIA taking over HIDEN), because not much people know about his true sinister nature. Attempting to fight off against villains like this (including the one behind the Ark) can be met with dire consequences for the heroes like harassment lawsuits, breaking & entering or assault charges, or bad press, or even being the one painted as villains in the public eye.

And at first glance, the role seems to be favorable for Gai and unfavorable for Aruto, with how Gai seems "loyal" to human to paint them as superior ones, while Aruto seems to be a "traitor" for helping machines. But Aruto specifically fights for the sake of co-existence between HumaGears and humanity, and Gai in reality only cares for nothing but himself. And as you said here, yeah the irony is that, despite how Gai looks down on machines compared to humans, his profit-driven mindset is more cold and data-focused than any Humagears, his suit is designed to already be "perfect". A blatant way to show how Gai only cares about himself and not even humanity overall (while being racist to Humagears) is that he himself had dark view of humanity, claiming that the Ark's judgment is exactly what mankind deserves. Otherwise, you gave quite good explanation of ZAIA Spec compared to Humagears there (sort of in Humagear's favor), because I'd be more conflicted to evaluate regarding technologies like Humagears replacing humans jobs (despite not being the intention).

The ZAIA Enterpises tag is nice touch for sure, though obviously it's done to show how egocentric he is, kinda like that sometimes, the medium is self-aware that Kamen Rider devices can be something that is so special it transcends humanity, like mostly humans are normal, but they can be super with those, that it's something worthy of commercial jingle (in his henshin sequence). I'd value the tradesnark qualities for that, not for how cool fighting as a Rider is or his finishing moves though (if the show also painted him as that), and even as you said, his debut is nothing special (except to him). Which includes someone who has no combat skills like Gai, but his sheer Thouser power at this point leads for him to tank attacks from a superhero.

Now that this episode is here, I must reiterate that I'm a huge Gai fan. I adore his actor, I was in love with the suit the moment we saw catalog leaks of it, I was always looking forward to Gai's debut as a Kamen Rider this was such a long time coming. I love the suit's royal aesthetic, I love the symmetrical belt that looks like a satellite, I love his weapon, I love that the undersuit is basically a recolor of Zero-One with a ton of armor on top of it, I love that lore-wise it technically can do everything Zero-One's currently strongest form can do, but focuses on it just being an absolute tank instead of speed. I love his soundtrack, just being a showcase of complete dominance.

Nachi Sakuragi does a great portrayal of Gai and I think it'd be really hard to find someone else who can say "1000%" as eloquently as he can.

The original design of Thouser did not have a black face, the mask was all silver with blue eyes, but I think them changing it to black and purple helped give it its status as a villain rider, without making it look too evil.

Bit of a personal tangent, but Thouser would actually be my second ever P-Bandai purchase. The first was Jin Flying Falcon, whom I picked over Horobi because I really liked episode 16, what a mistake that was! I've actually sold half of my Zero-One stuff, but Thouser (and Valkyrie, and Zero-One) remained.

https://i.imgur.com/VblMdFN.jpg

"Not 1000%, though?" is maybe one of the funniest scenes in the entire franchise? It's SO good

What makes the ZAIA SPEC sales percentage thing even better is that it's a product that just literally came out, meaning that it's only sold like 700-something units so far. That and who exactly ends up being able to buy said product are important details to my interpretation of Zero-One, I think.

Speaking of things of interest...

https://i.imgur.com/OwHC1Fz.png

I'm just gonna leave this here. Don't mind me.

It's Episode 17!

-It's the long-awaited job competition arc!

-As its core, I like the concept of this arc: In a world where the usefulness of their AI technology can soon be accessed in sleeker, more efficent ways for humanity, why continue to rely on the Humagears? What is it about them that truly enriches our soicety, and how will both sides react in the possiblity of one outgrowing the other? Can't really speak on my overall opinions on this arc,(mostly because it's the 2nd longest one in the show), but I will say I did enjoy a lot of the ideas it brings up....

-Izu's joke? 5 stars, I can see a wonderful career in comedy for her.

Round 1: Flower arrangement, start! I think it's really interesting to start off the "Do we really need Humagears?" debate with a challenge in the arts, where a "human" touch is almost naturally preferred? I think it's been impiled before but the idea of Humagears only being bulit for a set amount of service jobs, but can expand their roles by picking a type closest to it (in this case, a gardener) and have them engage in a heavy learning process, it's a fun idea that adds to their complexity. (I can easily imagine something like G-Pen initally being a Humagear specializing in graphic design and then being heavily trained on manga.)

-Sakuyo...... Not particularly a favorite or anything, but she's real neat. The idea that witnessing/experiencing human malice firsthand might be the catalyst for the Ark's new method of creating Magia, is solid, and I honestly prefer a lot more than just sticking a Zetsumeriser onto a Humagear/suddenly hacking into them. "Our ideology will continue to spread", indeed.

-Oh right, Thouser time. Love how his finisher has the little (c) ZAIA Enterprise thing, that's such a fun touch. The jack-off sword is such a dumb idea, I love it. As mentioned, Gai and Aruto have this wonderful contrast, and it's even present within how they fight. Zero One's movement is real bouncy, rough, and sponteanous (even with Shining Hopper's projected attacks), while Thouser this kinda "calculated, no unecessary movement" fighting style? Not as much as say, Kabuto, but it's certainly enough to draw a clear gap between the two. As fun as their dynamic was without needing to make things "personal", Gai having a bone to pick with how his idol's genius was ultimately was "wasted" on tinkering with Humagears when he could be advancing the quality of life for humans in other ways is a neat added layer to their conflict.

-......Forgot Mystery Person showed up this early.

-Fuwa and Yua seem to be put on the backburner for now, and I kinda get it. MJBR is down for the count, so there's no need for our trio to necessarily follow each other around anymore.... Gai is such a "I was made to contrast with Aruto" kinda villian that it'd be weird to interject like, Fuwa into the main A plot. At least he had something to do this episode tho....

-Ultimately, I think this is a real fun opener for this second arc? Sets up everything quite nicely save for a few little things.

I think it works pretty much the same as the first act's routine of exploring how Humagears interact with society? Maybe better? Previously, it was Aruto defending Hiden against vague market forces, and the whims of AIMS. Now, we're in a more contentious battle against ZAIA, and it's one with more explicit and immediate stakes. I liked it?

Thanks for posting! I... yeah, garish suits like Thouser aren't usually my favorite (Ex-Aid Muteki is my least favorite suit on that show by a mile), but I love it for how well it communicates Gai's ego and absence of humility. That suit can only be worn by a guy who considers himself the king of the corporate world, you know?

That's neat!

I mean, yeah, he's a guy who engineered several major disasters for his own benefit, but that's not this episode's story. This is just Gai being a self-involved asshole who needs to humiliate his former mentor's grandson. The stakes are just NOTICE ME GHOST SENPAI, and that's way more interesting to me.

Yeah, it does a great job of feeling like a corrupted hero design, rather than the obvious menace of Horobi, or even Jin. Thouser reads as a Rich Asshole, but still one who's likely to destroy monsters.

It's definitely the funniest Aruto scene so far. He clearly relishes puncturing Gai's bubble of self-importance, and the ENORMOUS pause of Gai realizing he just got dunked on and having no response is perfect editing. They just let Aruto lay that comment down gently, and then refuse to overplay the punchline. Delicious.

Ha ha, yeah, it's a weirdly deployed statistic? I guess I'd assume that ZAIASPEC was maybe at the end of a long rollout, so there's at least one quarter to compare against.

It's so bad! And her delivery is so unfunny! But it's such a great moment.

I like it a lot better because it's a choice the affected Humagear is making, rather than them being the victim of Horobi's malevolence or whatever. There's more weight behind Aruto reaching out to a deranged Humagear now, when there's a hope that they can be redeemed.

It's a great premise.... But the execution on the other hand, not so much.

So you've made it to the start of the dreaded Job Competition arc. I'll totally have a lot to complain about as you progress, but I'll start by mentioning that this wasn't actually Takahashi's choice. No, instead, it was producer Ohmori Takahito who decided this would be a good idea. Based on ratings, he might've been right, as more kids tuned in every week to watch Aruto and Gai wage this proxy tournament between HumaGears and AR-enhanced humans. Critically though, it's often considered to be the worst part of Zero One and a chore to get through. And this is all before you-know-what screwed with the production.

I think the main problem with it is how the competition is a lazy framing device as an excuse for lots and lots of filler. It could've been a best out of 3, since all you need is each side to show their qualities and a decider. Like, I get it, Gai doesn't merely want to defeat Aruto, he wants to crush him. But Gai is clearly underestimating Aruto's competence, which means this competition is going to be a little tighter than he'd like, which means having to tolerate more weeks of this tedious charade.

It's not all bad though. Of course, the world doesn't just stop while this is happening. Isamu totally doesn't give a damn about any of this, which I guess makes a lot of people relate to him even more! He's much more interested in solving the mysteries of Metsuboujinrai. Everything about Isamu in this arc is worthwhile for sure. Actually, there's even one round of the competition I liked for focusing on something less trivial, but I'll save that for later.

Thouzer is an acquired taste. I think it helps to have insight in to Gai's mind, to understand why he designed the suit to look so tacky with all the gold and silver and pretense of perfection. When I first saw the suit in magazine pictures without knowing who the user was, I didn't like it. But now when I think of Gai in that suit, yeah, it makes sense. It's perfect for him and I think it's clever how it made me like it for how much I didn't like it. Similar to your reaction to Assault Wolf, I guess. Does that make sense?

:thumb:

I agree with the change, but for different reasons. An all-silver mask would've looked like some kind of five-horned beetle, whereas the black helps to distinguish the caucasus from the arsinotherium, emphasizing his use of two types of Key. Blue eyes would've been counterproductive to Gai's public image, considering how HumaGears have blue eyes by default. Furthermore, purple is a darker shade of magenta, the sum of red and blue, symbolizing how Gai plans to rule both ZAIA and Hiden Intelligence in his game of manipulation.

Gosh, I don't know that I found this one tedious? I thought the battle of ideologies was actually a big step up from the more nebulous Act 1 stuff of Aruto learning a bit about Humagears, and then MetsubouJinrai makes a monster that needs to be defeated. This one... there's more of a goal to this, instead of the sweet but frequently inconsequential Aruto Goes On A Work Trip stuff. We're still getting insight into Humagear integration, but it's mixed with an immediate problem.

I don't know, I thought this first part worked pretty well?

Well, the definition of tedious implies that something occurs more than once, so it's basically impossible for this one episode on its own to have that effect. I think it's more the decline in stakes that's the problem, going from, "The Fall of Metsuboujinrai!", to, "Suddenly, Ikebana". This is just a preview of the frivolity to come. I mean no disrespect to the ikebana business, but it's hard for me to really care who wins in the short-term. There's the threat of Aruto losing his company, but that's not an immediate threat in a best out of 5 competition.

"but not a 1000%..." has got to be one of the best burns in Kamen Rider history. Aruto may be a failed comedian but that single line really nailed Gai where it hurts. And in turn it was then that Gai knew that he wanted to eradicate everything Aruto holds dear to him.

I like how this arc sets up Human - Humagear relations while also putting Aruto's position as a CEO and advocate for Humagears right front and center. It's the potential of Humagears and their value (and possession) of humanity versus humans using their own ingenuity and invention. Who will win?

Kamen Rider Thouser! I just love how excessive this whole debut is. Like, Gai has to advertise his company and dole out some hype worthy chant about the "Golden Soldier" every time he transforms and all that gold...and the suit itself kind of toes that line between excess and pure, refined, power that really sets Thouser apart from the other Riders. It's a good combination in a new antagonistic Kamen Rider and a nice contrast with Zero-One.

Poor Flying Falcon. Aruto finally has it back but not only does it still not get to use its finisher in the actual series but it's there. to get out shined by the new Rider. Granted, Shining Hopper doesn't do much better (sorry Was).

I like the lowered stakes, though? Or, not "lowered" so much as "personalized"? I always like these shows best when there's a smile in the balance, and this little story about a Humagear trying her best to prove her worth as an artist in a world that would rather ignore her... man, I like that a lot.

Gai's very fun! He's a smug braggart set up against a self-effacing jester, and that dynamic is so addictive to watch.

KAMEN RIDER ZERO-ONE EPISODE 18 - “THESE ARE MY ARRANGED FLOWERS”

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/...zeroone18a.png

I don’t know, I thought this was really cute?

I liked how it supported the main Zero-One themes: looking at interpersonal relationships as partnerships instead of rivalries; the necessity of being supportive, even if it doesn’t gain you anything; how one generation can best care for the next generation; how societal gains are more important than individual victories. Pretty basic stuff for this show, but I honestly never get tired of seeing these topics explored.

It’s a little hard to make this sound like a fun episode? Describing it in detail makes it sound both minor (it’s just about some guy learning to treat technology as another point of view, rather than an adversary) and sort of formulaic (Thouser continues to no-sell everything and be an unbeatable bad-ass 24/7). The beauty of this episode is in the delicateness of the struggle, not the bombastic tokusatsu shenanigans. It succeeds because the fear of losing our humanity due to the increasingly inescapable technology of the near-future is a relatable one: what’s the point of humanity if technology can replace even our artists? Having a message where the teaching of art to computers gets us seeing art in new, better ways, or in finding our new aspects of our humanity within that process… I don’t know, I thought that was a compelling idea to dig into.

And, like, it doesn’t even matter if the Humagear lost the contest, because Aruto won the argument. I like that resolution so, so much. I like a story with a moral victory, even at the cost of the actual victory. I’m going to remember that handshake between the human and the Humagear way more than I’m going to remember almost anything else from this episode. It’s a sweet resolution to a sweet story.

Really, the only bum note for me was the big superhero battle in the middle of the episode? As fun as it was to see Valkyrie and Vulcan have a little duel, the placement of it in the story felt utterly arbitrary. Fuwa thinks that Yua and ZAIA have reactivated Horobi, based on literally no evidence I can recall, and Yua gets unnecessarily shifty and combative. They start fighting, and then Gai shows up to illustrate that even Vulcan’s most powerful form is no match for the narrative power of no-selling, so Thouser wipes the floor with yet another character. Nothing in this fight furthers any particular plotline (Fuwa just goes back to Horobi Lecter with information from a different climax he was not even present for), and it feels so blatantly Thouser-centric that I’m wondering if this show is actually sponsored by ZAIA Enterprise. Thouser’s cool! I get it! I don’t need individual fights of him demolishing every single member of the cast!

So, yeah, this was one of those episodes where I was incredibly dialed-in on the human interest stuff, and found the superhero action to be alternately forgettable or a distraction. The rest of it, though! Very cute episode.